Proximity and Touch are associated with Neural but not Physiological Synchrony in Naturalistic Mother-Infant Interactions
- Author(s)
- Trinh Nguyen, Drew H. Abney, Dina Salamander, Bennett I. Bertenthal, Stefanie Hoehl
- Abstract
Caregiver touch plays a vital role in infants’ growth and development, but its role as a communicative signal in human parent-infant interactions is surprisingly poorly understood. Here, we assessed whether touch and proximity in caregiver-infant dyads are related to neural and physiological synchrony. We simultaneously measured brain activity and respiratory sinus arrhythmia of 4- to 6-month-old infants and their mothers (N=69 dyads) in distal and proximal joint watching conditions as well as in an interactive face-to-face condition. Neural synchrony was higher during the proximal than during the distal joint watching conditions, and even higher during the face-to-face interaction. Physiological synchrony was highest during the face-to-face interaction and lower in both joint watching conditions, irrespective of proximity. Maternal affectionate touch during the face-to-face interaction was positively related to neural but not physiological synchrony. This is the first evidence that touch mediates mutual attunement of brain activities, but not cardio-respiratory rhythms in caregiver-infant dyads during naturalistic interactions. Our results also suggest that neural synchrony serves as a biological pathway of how social touch plays into infant development and how this pathway could be utilized to support infant learning and social bonding.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology
- External organisation(s)
- University of Georgia, Indiana University Bloomington
- Journal
- NeuroImage
- Volume
- 244
- No. of pages
- 8
- ISSN
- 1053-8119
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118599
- Publication date
- 09-2021
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 501014 Neuropsychology, 501005 Developmental psychology
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neurology, Cognitive Neuroscience
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/45ba492d-9726-4050-86c8-be5ad8637d29